I don't know if it was Democrats or Republicans, it's kinda hard to keep track of which side is more clueless or corrupt, frankly.

But I used to live in Rochester, NY, home of Delco; they made parts for Detroit's carmakers. For a very long time, someone with a C grade high
school graduate (or who had a father working there) could get a job at Delco paying pretty much the same wage as a teacher or a nurse; it was just
production work and didn't probably require more than a few hours' training.

Fast forward 20 years and these people had paid for houses, several cars in the driveway and a little used big fishing boat parked in the side yard.
But no savings; they thought the gravy train was permanent. When layoffs due to NAFTA and the frequent recessions started happening, and junior
couldn't automatically get a job paying $25 an hour to start with benefits, you should have seen the squawking.

These were illiterate people (you could tell by the letters to the editor) who took their good paying jobs for granted and hadn't prepared for
anything else. They also had no particular job skills to take elsewhere.

I imagine much the same thing has happened in Detroit, to the 10th power, since most of their money was US Carmakers' money, and the quality never
came up to Japanese or German standards.

1) The city of Detroit owes money to more than 100,000 creditors.
2) Detroit is facing $20 billion in debt and unfunded liabilities. That breaks down to more than $25,000 per resident.
3) Back in 1960, the city of Detroit had the highest per-capita income in the entire nation.
4) In 1950, there were about 296,000 manufacturing jobs in Detroit. Today, there are less than 27,000.
5) Between December 2000 and December 2010, 48 percent of the manufacturing jobs in the state of Michigan were lost.
6) There are lots of houses available for sale in Detroit right now for $500 or less.
7) At this point, there are approximately 78,000 abandoned homes in the city.
8) About one-third of Detroit's 140 square miles is either vacant or derelict.
9) An astounding 47 percent of the residents of the city of Detroit are functionally illiterate.
10) Less than half of the residents of Detroit over the age of 16 are working at this point.
11) 60 percent of all children in the city of Detroit are living in poverty.
12) Detroit was once the fourth-largest city in the United States, but over the past 60 years the population of Detroit has fallen by 63 percent.
13) Detroit is bringing in about 11 million dollars a month in tax revenue from the casinos.
14) There are 70 "Superfund" hazardous waste sites in Detroit.
15) 40 percent of the street lights do not work.
16) Only about a third of the ambulances are running.
17) Some ambulances in the city of Detroit have been used for so long that they have more than 250,000 miles on them.
18) Two-thirds of the parks in the city of Detroit have been permanently closed down since 2008.
19) The size of the police force in Detroit has been cut by about 40 percent over the past decade.
20) When you call the police in Detroit, it takes them an average of 58 minutes to respond.
21) Due to budget cutbacks, most police stations in Detroit are now closed to the public for 16 hours a day.
22) The violent crime rate in Detroit is five times higher than the national average.
23) The murder rate in Detroit is 11 times higher than it is in New York City.
24) Today, police solve less than 10 percent of the crimes that are committed in Detroit.

Dertoit like others cities, was a one trick pony. They never thought to diversify from the automotive industry. Once that pony started dying, there
was no stopping the decay and rot. Add horrible governance and entitlment behavior ontop of that and you have Detroit. Any region that doesn't
diversify its economy will suffer the same fate.

That has got to be one of the stupidest things I've ever seen. People without a 2nd grade understanding of the English language really shouldn't be
creating memes in an effort to pass themselves off as informed. "Handel"? Really!?

A commenter from one of the sources in the OP mentioned this being a part of eventual regionalism as municipalities begin to be annexed and amalgamate
due to flight to the suburbs and other cities (dwindling tax base). This is the first time I have seen this mentioned and actually would line up with
something like Agenda 21. Is anyone else familiar with this regionalism or is the commenter full of it?

GREED. Detroit automakers were more concerned about making huge profits instead of meeting the quality challenge by Japanese automakers back in the
70's. Unions were also getting greedy and demanding excessive salaries for unskilled workers. The end result not only affected Detroit but auto
part manufacturers across the United States.

This same greed will be the demise of the United State. Manufacturer's sending jobs overseas for larger profits and poor quality goods is already
causing a lack of jobs and a decline in the U.S. economy.

Watch liberals come in and say "Republicans and Democrats are equally at fault" or some such pseudo-harmonizing nonsense.

Anyone who believes in left-wing economic principles will go dead broke sooner or later. Happens all the time. People who have Democrats ruling for
more than 50 years and expect anything other than going dead broke to happen are completely ignorant of how the Economy works. You can't make money
off of nothing.

Nafta was a Clinton thing. I remember the repubs having Chinese asylum seekers crying on cspan. They are doing the same thing right now, but idiot
democrat liberals can't figure that out,
.
Same old throw the stupid people that vote for them under the bus. Welfare and food stamps are good enough for them, and they serve a purpose to
populate their prison farms, too.

Poor people that vote democratic are just doing themselves in, for pennies on the dollar. And they,all will never bother to learn.

As a son of Detroit, and having watched the city decline from "the Paris of the West" into a war zone, the answer is both very simple and extremely
complicated. But at it's base, it can be summed up by one phrase: Political Corruption. All of the other problems stem from that.

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